Amir Khan Muttaqi Was Handed Over To Afghanistan By India During The IC 814 Hijack In 1999? Here’s The Truth.

Afghan Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi arrived in India for a week of talks on 9 October 2025. 

India will upgrade its ‘technical mission’ in Kabul to the status of an embassy, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar announced on 10 October 2025. The Afghan Taliban administration will also send diplomats to New Delhi, its foreign minister said. Against this backdrop, a collage of two images went viral on social media. The first image shows India’s then foreign minister Jaswant Singh with two Afghan militants and the other image shows India’s present Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar with Afghan Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi during the latter’s India visit. Sharing the images, users claimed that Amir Khan Muttaqi is the same militant who was handed over by India in 1999 during the Kandahar Plane Hijack.

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However, as we investigated, we came to know that the claim was misleading. Amir Khan Muttaqi was not the same person who was handed over by India in 1999. Here’s the fact check.

Fact Check

We started our investigation by conducting a reverse image search. This led us to a video on the official YouTube channel of AP Archive uploaded on 23 July 2015.  From the timestamp 1:42, a clip similar to the first image in the viral collage can be seen. 

In the clip, India’s then foreign minister Jaswant Singh can be seen saying “Innocent men, women and children have been criminally kept confined during the festive season, impeded from light and joy for more than a week. We stated at the very beginning that our primary concern was the earliest termination of the hijacking and the safe return of all passengers and crew”.

The description of the video reads, “(31 Dec 1999) Pashtu/Natsound

Passengers and crew who were held hostage for eight days on an Indian Airlines plane are back home now.

Planes carrying the freed captives from Afghanistan arrived in New Delhi late on Friday – to an emotional welcome from Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and relatives.

The eight-day ordeal had ended earlier in the day after India had flown three Islamic militants imprisoned on terror charges to the Kandahar airport.

This was the moment when the hijackers left the Indian Airlines plane in Afghanistan – ending an eight-day crisis which took the hostages to India, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and Afghanistan.

The hijackers had demanded the release of 36 militants jailed in India for their fight against Indian rule of the disputed territory of Kashmir.

However, only three militants were released – an offer the hijackers eventually agreed to.

The freed militants included Pakistani religious leader Masood Azhar – the ideologue of the Harkat ul-Ansar, a group that is included on a U-S list of terrorist organisations. 

The group is believed to have training camps in Afghanistan.  

The other prisoners were Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, chief commander of the rebel group Ul-Umar Mujahideen, and Ahmad Omar Sayed Sheikh, who was held in a New Delhi prison.

Not long after their arrival at Kandahar airport, five hijackers left the Indian Airlines plane.

The five were seen carrying pistols and did not give up their weapons as they walked off the plane.

The hijackers then drove away in four-wheel drive vehicles to an unknown destination.

They took with them the three released rebels and, as a hostage, a soldier of the

Taliban movement, the Muslim fundamentalist group that rules most of Afghanistan.

Not long after their departure, the first hostages started getting off the plane.

They were taken to planes waiting to take them back to New Delhi.

Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh – who had travelled with the militants to Kandahar soon made his way onto the tarmac to join the hostages.

He said the hijackers had been given 10 hours to leave Afghanistan.

Singh also defended the release of the militants, insisting the Indian government had acted to ensure the safety of the passengers.

SOUNDBITE: (English)

\”Innocent men, women and children have been criminally kept confined during the festive season, impeded from light and joy for more than a week. We stated at the very beginning that our primary concern was the earliest termination of the hijacking and the safe return of all passengers and crew.\”

SUPER CAPTION: Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh

Late on Friday – when all hostages had left the Indian Airlines plane – APTN was allowed on board to film the interior of the jet that was at the centre of the longest hijack drama in more than a decade.

The plane had been on the tarmac at Kandahar since December 25, a day after the drama began on a flight from Kathmandu, Nepal to New Delhi, India. 

Conditions on the plane steadily worsened as the crisis dragged on.

With temperatures dipping below freezing, the engines on the hijacked plane shut down early on Friday, cutting heat and light and making conditions even more uncomfortable.

Meanwhile, the Taliban movement found itself in an unusual position on Friday – receiving heaps of praise for helping defuse a difficult hijacking drama.

The West has harshly criticised the Taliban, and the UN has imposed sanctions against the movement for its willingness to harbour individuals and groups accused of terrorism.”

According to reports, the three terrorists who were freed in exchange for the hostages of the IC 814 flight were, Masood Azhar, Omar Sheikh and Mushtaq Zargar.

Further investigation led us to a report where we found the image of the person with Jaswant Singh in the viral collage. According to the report, he is Abdul Wakil Muttawakil who served as the Foreign Minister of Afghanistan during the time of the IC 814 Hijack. Jaswant Singh travelled to Kandahar to bring back the passengers of IC 814 after negotiations with the hijackers, which were facilitated by Muttawakil.

Amir Khan Muttaqi and Abdul Wakil Muttawakil are two different people. Amir Khan Muttaqi has been serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan since 2021. 

Abdul Wakil Muttawakil was a member of the militant Taliban organisation. He was the Taliban Foreign Minister from 27 October 1999 in their first Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan rule, until the Taliban were deposed in late 2001.

A comparison between the photos of Amir Khan Muttaqi and Abdul Wakil Muttawakil can be seen below.

Conclusion 

From our investigation, we can say that the claim is misleading. The person with India’s then foreign minister, Jaswant Singh, is not Amir Khan Muttaqi. He is Abdul Wakil Muttawakil(Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil Abdul Ghaffar), the foreign minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in 1999. Jaswant Singh travelled to Kandahar to bring back the passengers of IC 814 after negotiations with the hijackers, which were facilitated by Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil Abdul Ghaffar. Amir Khan Muttaqi is the present Foreign Minister of Afghanistan.